Case governance
Icelandic verbs can govern any of the three cases: accusative🇮🇸 þolfall, dative🇮🇸 þágufall or genitive🇮🇸 eignarfall.
What this means in reality is that their object(s) (the things affected by the verb) will be in one of these cases. For a general overview of this concept, see Introduction to case.
Direct and indirect objects
Some verbs take just one object, known as the direct object🇮🇸 beint andlag:
Krakkinn borðar pitsuna.
Fótbóltamaðurinn kastaði boltanum.
Njóttu dagsins!
Other verbs can take two objects:
Mamma gaf mér bók í jólagjöf.
Kennarinn sagði börnunum sögu.
Here, the verb has both a direct object and an indirect object🇮🇸 óbeint andlag. The indirect object is often the person or thing that is “receiving” the direct object.
In the first example above, the direct object is bók (the thing being given) and the indirect object is mér (the person the book is being given to.)
The majority of verbs take a direct object in the accusative and an indirect object in the dative (if they take an indirect object at all). This is the norm. What we’ll deal with now is the verbs that don’t fit this pattern.
Verbs that govern the dative
Sometimes what case a verb governs is arbitrary. For proof of this, check out these pairs of verbs that have similar meanings but govern different cases:
| + Accusative | + Dative |
|---|---|
| aðstoða “to assist” | hjálpa “to help” |
| keyra “to drive” | aka “to drive” |
| klára “to finish” | ljúka “to finish, end” |
There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason here. However, there are certain common themes that you might notice running through many verbs that govern the dative:
| Control of people/vehicles | aka, fljúga, leiðbeina, sigla, ráða, stjórna, stýra |
|---|---|
| Loss/destruction | drekkja, eyða, glata, gleyma, klúðra, spilla, sóa, tapa, týna, útrýma |
| Sudden movement | fleygja, flýta, henda, kasta, lyfta, renna, skella, sleppa, smella, sparka, ýta |
| Movement of liquids or gases | anda, hella, skola, skvetta, sprauta, spýja, sulla, sturta, æla |
| Rejection/refusal | andmæla, hafna, mótmæla, neita |
| Violation/threats | nauðga, ógna, stríða |
Some of these verbs take different cases depending on the meaning. For example, when ráða means “to decide”, it takes the dative. But when it means “to hire”, it takes the accusative:
Þú ræður dagskránni.
Fyrirtækið ræður tvo nýja starfsmenn.
All in all, just under a third of Icelandic verbs govern the dative.
Verbs that govern the genitive
Very few verbs govern the genitive in modern Icelandic. In fact, it’s possible to list almost all of them here:
| Icelandic | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| afla | to gain, seek, acquire | |
| bíða | to wait | Normally avoided by using bíða eftir +dat. |
| freista | to tempt | |
| geta | to remark, note, state | |
| gæta | to look after, ensure | Quite formal, passa and tryggja are used more often. |
| leita | to look for | Normally avoided by using leita að/eftir +dat. |
| njóta | to enjoy | |
| sakna | to miss (a person) | |
| spyrja | to ask (a question) | As in spyrja spurninga. Some speakers use accusative instead. |
| vænta | to expect | Normally avoided by using búast við +dat. |
There are others, but these are by far the most common.
A fossilised genitive can also appear in certain expressions. For example þurfa “to need” normally takes the accusative in modern Icelandic, except when used with a dummy það:
Við þurfum nýtt hús.
Mig langar ekki að fara í vinnuna. Ég þarf þess ekki.